Graduates want a year off before work

GAP YEAR:More than a third of college-leavers want to spend a year pursuing their dreams before they start a job, a poll found, but their parents see things differently

By Yang Chiu-ying / Staff reporter

A survey recently published by a job bank found that 30 percent of graduating students born after 1990 do not wish to get a job immediately after leaving school, but would rather spend a year chasing their dreams, spending an average of NT$320,000 on the privilege.

According to information gathered by a yes123 Job Bank poll, more than one-third of graduating students felt that the best age for pursuing their dreams is between 23 and 25 years of age, which is right after they graduate.

However, the survey found that most parents could only accept their child being out of work for 7.6 months after graduation — 4.5 months less than the ideal time set down by their offspring.

Yes123 marketing manager Chiu Chien-chih (邱建志) said dreams and ideals can be pursued at any point in life, and it would make more sense if graduating students could combine the pursuit of their dreams with work.

“We just hope that students don’t keep trying to ‘pursue their dreams,’ because there have been instances where college graduates have changed jobs more than 10 times since graduating in the pursuit of perfection. It is not a good thing to do in a long period of instability,” Chiu said.

The survey found that the top five “dreams” on college-leavers’ wish-lists include earning their “first pot of gold” — usually meaning NT$1 million (US$33,480) — while traveling, including going abroad or taking a round-nation trip.

As for an age when they would “awake from their dreams” and start working, 34 percent said that would happen when they were 30 years old, 32 percent said 25 years of age, while 18 percent chose to “keep on dreaming” and to take all the time they needed to pursue their ambitions.

Of the jobs that topped the wish-lists, 16 percent of graduates wanted to work in the IT industry, 13 percent wanted to work in the travel and leisure industry, while 10 percent wanted to work in the arts.

The survey was conducted from May 24 to June 4 and collected a total of 1,073 valid samples.

Translated by Jake Chung, staff writer

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